Interviews

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Category: Interviews

Play Girls Magazine has been on the Finnish rock scene almost 26 years, music is a way of life for them and have fun playing is really important.
We had the opportunity to meet the band before their electric gig in Pori and talk about this long music journey, the plans for the future and much more.

The female fronted rock/metal band Manzana is back! After 5 years they are ready to explode on the scene with new material and tours.
We had the opportunity to meet Piritta before their show in Pori and talk about the upcoming album, the European tour and much more.

Ember Falls is a band from Finland which proposes metal music with electronic influences, their charismatic performances took them on tour with bands as Amaranthe, Pain and W.A.S.P.
After their show in Tampere we had the opportunity to meet the guys and talk about the band, their first album, the plans for the future and much more.

All of us know well how many great bands come from Finland, some of them are mad, mad as Fear of Domination.
After some line-up changes FoD is back more energetic than never, ready to show how to entertain the audience with their crazy performances and with new music.
We had the opportunity to have a chat with the new entry Sara and talk about their last single, the upcoming album, the tour with Pain and much more.

-Hey Sara, how are you doing?I am doing fabulous! We are just on a tour with PAIN and last night at Klubi in Tampere was extremely good. Now we are heading to Kerubi in Joensuu.

-For whom don’t know Fear of Domination, would you mind introduce the band and give us some biographical hints?Nowadays Fear of Domination aka “FoD” is a eight-piece alternative heavy metal act from Finland. We are proud of our energetic group which succees in impressive visual performances.
FoD is “all in” in every show and this has been the philosophy since 2006 when FoD was founded.
More details of FoD’s history you can find from our homepage.

-Your music is defined as shock metal, how so? Does it to do with your live shows?
This merit of being a “shock metal band” comes from the audience and media. It seems that we have made quite an impression with each album and every live show.
As said before, we are a very energetic band with good band chemistry and therefore a lot of unexpected things happen during the shows!

-Your new single “The Last Call” has just been released and it rocks! What can you tell about it? And can we expect a new album soon?
For me “The Last Call” is a very personal song. First time I heard the demo composition of our guitarist Johannes Niemi I was totally blown away by the song; The lyrics and melodies came out very fast and I made the demo vocals in my living room.
Of course we made some arrangements to fit Saku’s vocals into the song.
I am really happy that the guys gave me so much freedom in doing the song.
About rest of the album, I don’t have this much vocal parts and we’ve tried to share the vocals with Saku in a more balanced way.
About the upcoming album, it’s on its way, but the release date is still unknown. Nevertheless, it is coming and going to rock your socks off!

-Last year you have release your version of the famous hit from the Bloodhound Gang “The bad touch”, how did you come up with the idea to do a cover of this popular song from the late 90s?
Before I was in the band, the guys were pondering about that should they play a cover song or something. They don’t remember who came up with the idea of playing “The Bad Touch” but I got to say it is a perfect song for FoD!
Very sexually loaded piece that creates the right vibe for the band and the outcome of the cover was amazing.
It has been a pleasure to play it live! The crowd usually goes totally nuts when they hear it live.

-Now you’re touring with Pain around Finland and in May you will enjoy Amaranthe at their Baltic tour, how is going this tour? And what do you expect from the Baltic tour?
The tour with PAIN is going great! We have a nice chemistry on the tour with everybody. Hopefully we get to go on a tour with PAIN in Europe too.
About the tour with Amaranthe in the Baltics, we are very hyped! We get to meet a group of great artists and share the stage with them.
Besides we haven’t been touring in the Baltic countries that much, so hopefully we’ll reach new fans. And of course we’ll have a crazy good time while doing what we love the most!

-In 2015 you took part in the TV show “The Voice of Finland”, you were part of the team Michael Monroe, what do you remember from this experience? And how was to work with Michael?It was a nice experience that taught me how the TV-shows are made in Finland.
Michael is a very nice man with a good attitude! All the best for him!

Ph. Nelonenmedia

-What’s on plan for FoD in the future?
Music is the greatest motivator for everything we do. We have a very insane and creative band that is ready for everything!
We want to do music and live show, so that’s why we will never stop the madness!

-We have done with this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like to say something to our readers?We are so grateful for your support! We wish to see you guys on the gigs and hopefully you will enjoy our upcoming album!

Mhela is a band from Tuscany, their firs EP “ES” has just been release, with their music they take us to a ride in the human subconscious that wants to become the “Superego”.
We had the opportunity to talk with them about their first EP, the metal scene in Italy, the plans for the future and much more.

–Hey guys, how are you doing?Fine thanks, hope you are fine too.

-Would you mind to introduce the band and give us some biographical hints?
We are MHELA and we are an Italian surrealist/alternative metal band from Tuscany born in January 2013.
The current lineup features vocalist Erick “Steve Low”, drummer Michele “Splash” Sestito, bassist Mattia “Il Clone” Giannini and guitarist Andrea Zucchini. The band originally included a fifth member, keyboardist Federico Carraro, who quit in November 2016.
Erick, Michele and Andrea met in high school and and started the project with others, Mattia and Federico came on later.
In 2015 we released our first demo and later our first music video “Vampires Don’t Sleep”.
Thanks our commitment in playing on every possible occasion in the Versilia area, the band was able to play in various events alongside bands like Under The Bed, Athena (now called Moderntears), Atlantic Tides and more.

-Your first EP “ES” has been released at the beginning of 2018, what can you tell about its genesis and lyrics?
Well, music and lyrics in Es came from our deepest problems and darkest fears. Giving a face to our most negative thoughts helped us a lot in making the musical parts; for the lyrics instead we tried to sort them out. It was something strange and painful, but we made it. Playing the songs it’s something that helps us fight back those things and we hope that it could helps anyone who has those negative thoughts.
The Es of Sigmund Freud is the human subconscious; our is the human subconscious that wants to become the “Superego”.

-From the EP has also been released a video-clip of “Night With Spirits”, did you enjoy the making of this video? Do you want tell us some details of the making-off and behind the scene?
It was an amazing experience! We were in this surreal place, all covered in dust, cold as hell while it was raining.
It took one day to set up the place because it was full of objects, chairs, tables, robot arms… Then we filled it with speakers (gave us by the owner of that place, that we would like to thank) and the next day we did our best to kick some ass.
It was fantastic, a really beautiful experience and we want to thank Donatello Viti and his girlfriend for the amazing shots and the patience showed with us.

-Your music is define surreal metal but where does Mhela root its influences?
Well, many people define us in different ways. There’s the one who says we are Nu Metal, the one who says Pop, the one who says Symphonic… Honestly? Maybe we don’t really know what we are, but we like it.
Influences, again, are various. Everyone of us gives what he really likes into our music but mainly we are inspired by bands like Korn, Nightwish, Slipknot, A Perfect Circle, Eeen Reggae and Dubstep are on our list.
If we would tell every artist who inspired us, we would be here till dawn!

-You have on program some shows in Italy, what’s about the future? Any plans for gigs outside Italy?
We really want to go outside of Italy, but right now we are just waiting the right moment to do that.
We want to enjoy our journeys in front of us hoping that people likes our artist choices.

-If you have the chance to choose a band to share the stage with, which would be?Definitely Korn. It would be a dream comes true.

-Nowadays Italy has a bunch of good bands even if they’re still not so popular, how hard is to rise up in the metal scene in a country like Italy? And what’s your favorite Italian metal act?Italy has always been place for great artists but right now people don’t pay much attention to them, much less for the musicians.
There are many artists who succeed abroad but in Italy is very difficult. People doesn’t like live music, especially metal bands, but that’s because of the media imposition against this genre.
In Italy metal is treated with inferiority and for that it’s difficult to emerge. So there is only one thing, work hard and hope that our music reaches as much people as possible.
I think Lacuna Coil is very important for live performances and it’s strange that they had such an outcome abroad but in Italy are not so famous. By the way, we think that they have a great metal act that you must see.

-We are at the end of this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like to say something to our readers?

Yes, we would like to thank the people who supported us and assisted to our progresses. For us it’s a very important project and see people that support us is very satisfying.
Not only our parents and friends but we would like to thank Tana Del Lupo Records for the recording sessions, Tiziana Podda for the graphics of ES, Russian Metal Radio, Metal Hammer, Metal Force, Metal In Italy and you for the interview.
Thank you so much.

Viikate decided to celebrate its 21th anniversary with a double album “Katkerimmat 2011-2017”, in which there are a lot of hits and some rare tracks, and a tour around Finland.
We had the opportunity to meet Kaarle and talk about this greatest hits, the collaboration with Timo Rautiainen, the Christmas songs from Koti-Viikate-Teollisuus and much more.

“Assault Your Fears” is the motto of the Italian death groove metal band Sinphobia.The band is working on the third album, from which has been released the first single “Selflessness”, and they are hungry for gigs.We had the opportunity to talk with them about their music, the upcoming album, the experience at W.O.A. and much more.

-Hey guys, how are you doing?We are doing great actually! We are very busy at the moment both playing gigs and writing new material for our upcoming album, we are excited because we want to deliver the best music we can to our new and old followers, it’s a crucial phase for the band.

-For whom don’t know Sinphobia, would you mind to introduce the band and give us some biographical hints?Sinphobia is a four piece death groove metal band based in Verona, Italy.
The History of the band began more than ten years ago with the ideas of the founder Ivan (guitarist) and, with several line-up changes, led to the release of the first self-titled Full lenght in 2014.
The line-up you can hear and see established itself in 2016 with the publication of the second Full lenght “Awaken”. With this new powerful line-up the band has started to grow more and more carrying its music all across Italy and Europe playing several shows in Ukraine,Germany,France, Czech Republic, Slovenia and gaining the stage of Wacken Open Air in 2016.

-Why did you choose Sinphobia as name? Is there any kind of story behind?The word Sinphobia combines two other words, “Phobia” (Fear) and “Sin”, the latter incorporating a double meaning, “without” (sine in Latin) and “with” (originating from Greek). The concept behind that is depicting the double nature of human existence, which is constantly tormented by the presence of fears which keep man and mankind from fulfilling their own dreams.
From the name itself comes the band’s motto which is “Assault Your Fears”; fear, in all its forms, is our biggest limitation and needs to be overcome in order to become masters of our own existence.

-Your last album “Awaken” has been released in 2016, what can you tell about it? In 2018 is expected the release of a new album, what can we expect from it?Actually “Awaken” is the re-issue of our first full length “Sinphobia” and we digitally released it through our label, Bakerteam Records. “Awaken” includes all our old songs plus two new songs which will be featured in our new album.
“Awaken” was kinda fundamental because thanks to it we had the opportunity to offer a small taste of how the new album will be and, at the same time, to show the change the new band members brought to the sound of the band.

-From the upcoming album has been released the first single “Selflessness”, what can you tell about this song?“Selflessness” is by far one of the most kick-ass songs of the new album. We wrote it thinking about an ongoing shout throughout the song based on a tight rhythmic pattern. Lyrically “Selflessness”, as the title might suggest, deals with the liberation from the Self.
Our Ego keeps us from feeling ourselves a part of the creation and leads us to feel us privileged and superior to other beings. When our Ego is strong we are easily victim of our fears because we only think about ourselves and what we don’t have or what we desperately want. If we let our Ego be eaten by our fears we will tame the monsters in our head and we will be finally free getting back to our natural and primordial state, a harmonic part of the universe.

-Your music’s define death/groove metal but where does Sinphobia root its influences?Sinphobia can easily be described as a mix of modern American Death Metal and old school European Thrash Metal but we like to add our own style, made of pure energy, groove and contamination from other genres.
The key point of the band are rehearsals, everything we compose is played, arranged and tested in our rehearsal room, everyone in the band listens to many other genres beyond metal so when we play we turn our room in a crazy sound lab when we try to mix everything in order to write bonecrushing songs with a fresh and new sound.

-In 2016 you’ve played at Wacken Open Air, what do you remember of that experience and how did the share react to your performance?Wacken Open Air has been for sure the most mindblowing show we’ve played so far. We have been amazed by the professionalism and working ethic people at WOA have, we were the most unknown band there and we were treated like the number one band on the main stage, we didn’t take that for granted. Our performance has been unforgettable, the energy which such a big crowd gives you is unbelievable and helped us being, as we were told by the guys in the backstage, the loudest band in the metal battle.

-You have been on tour also in Ukraine and in some other European countries, how was play outside from Italy? What are the main differences when you play in Italy compared to other countries?Having the possibility of playing outside our country is always a blessing because we have the opportunity to meet new people and friends and, at the same time, we can understand better how music and metal scene goes all across Europe.
What we have experienced is that when we play abroad, even if we the crowd doesn’t know us and our songs, they are less “shy” than Italian crowd and they actively participate to the show. For example in Ukraine every night was a mass murder, we couldn’t expect such a great response from them and we are definitely looking forward to coming back there soon.

-You’re constantly on tour but what’s on plan for the future?For sure we don’t want to stop our live activity, concerts are like oxygen for band’s lungs. As we said before we are working on our new album and therefore we will be forced to take a little brake but don’t worry, we will come back with more shows hopefully all around Europe, there are many countries we haven’t been to yet and where we absolutely want to have a blast meeting new friends.

-Talking about the metal scene in Italy, how do you see it?Is it growing up in the time?Metal scene in Italy is great, that’s for sure! There are many amazing band and we have the pleasure to consider some of them friends more than colleagues. Metal scene and music scene in general grows faster and faster, the only problem is that the scene doesn’t support itself and there are more musicians on stage than off stage, therefore there are fewer places to play because many live clubs are forced to close due to the amount of bills they have to pay.

-We have done with this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like tell something to our readers?First of all we want to thank you for this amazing interview, it’s been a honor and a pleasure. Then we want to invite all the readers to check our official Facebook page and our website Sinphobia.com where they will find all our songs, all our videos and everything about ourselves. Lastly we want to push you to Assault Your Fears! Take control of your lives, don’t let anything block the way between you and your dreams!

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